notes from mainecation 2

this was supposed to go out last night my bad

WE ARE BACK FRIENDS. Usually I don’t write a blog post every day but … today was just so awesome. So autumn. So crisp!

Esteemed subscriber Vic Dong and I had planned for a nice long day of hiking but we did not think we would do almost ALL the hikes in the park. The hike — dubbed on ALlTrails as the “Jordan Pond Six Peak” hike — basically goes around all the major summits around Jordan Pond in Acadia National Park bar Cadillac Peak which is honestly its own adventure in itself. Also note if you use iPhone find a trail you like on AllTrails, download it, then open that GPX file in and app called GPX Tracker. Free offline maps!

But off we went! First off to a peak that I could not pronounce (later found to be Penobscot Peak).

The colors in Acadia seem to be changing slowly. They’re not totally there yet, and even during the peak it seems that it will mostly be the beautiful deciduous trees peppered in around a lot of evergreens that seem to fare better on the higher elevations. It brings a bit of a nice refreshing fall — almost nostalgic. As I hiked and felt the cool breeze under the autumn sun I kept thinking back to Purdue for some strange reason that could not be explained. Because I cannot remember a day where it was sunny, breezy and with autumn colors at Purdue.

But worry not. Maine delivers. Once again the power of the sun rears its head, this time coupled with the persistence of the clouds — somehow able to withstand the extreme heat of the rays of light boring into them, and intermittently blocking the sun. Feeling the wind whipping through me on a random mountain summit in Maine — now this is what it’s all about it.

One gripe, though, that I have with Acadia is how rugged its trails are. Now, this might be perceived as soft or “west coast” especially from people like esteemed subscribers Matt Jewison and Akshay Pawar, but can we not just build a switchback? Why are trail builders looking at a bunch of rocks, slapping some blue paint on it and calling it a trail? I will leave you all to ponder that.

Our gargantuan nine-mile hike somehow ended back at our car. It wasn’t the only serendipitous thing to happen then. We drove over to the Jordan Pond House to pick up some things from the gift shop and when we pulled into the mainly full parking lot somebody JUST happened to pull out giving us a space. And right after we got out of the gift shop it started raining.

The luck ran out by the time we got to dinner where we were blessed with no rain, but sadly the cold had taken hold and we had to wait for a seat. After poking around a bit I realized they were actually just steaming the lobster right in front of us. I guess I must have been looking a bit interested because one of the cooks pulled a lobster out for me to take pictures of … and WITH.

It has been said that this might be the most joyful picture of me out there. And in that moment, I could feel nothing but happiness and elation. To hold a lobster in my own hands that may or may not be destined for my stomach later on is a feeling I hope you all feel soon. Anyway here is me with a lobster before and after destruction.

Honestly to rank this with the lobster rolls seems unfair, but I would rate this below the Claws lobster roll and above the Highroller lobster roll simply due to the fact that you get so much more lobster from this lobster but it’s harder to actually eat than the Claws lobster roll. And this, the following rankings:

1. Claws lobster roll
2. Abel’s steamed lobster
3. Highroller lobster roll

We ended the day with a bit of astrophotography! We noticed that the light pollution was pretty low and I gotta say — I think we got some nice results.

Maybe see you tomorrow! Maybe see you in two days!!!